The end of October is finally here, and companies may feel like encouraging a more festive mood with employees and customers. Decorating the office with colorful cutouts and light-up pumpkins is one thing, but Halloween is also a prime time to cash in on advertising potential with promo items.

These giveaways don't need to be costly or generic. Instead, businesses should try handing out candy and other Halloween-themed items that promote the company as well.

Trick-or-treats
Candy is one of the most basic staples of modern American Halloween traditions. Wrappers and packaging are also ideal places for a firm to put its logo and brand name, appealing to children with their tasty offerings as well as parents who may see this gesture as an interest in family values. As kids collect and swap treats, they also study the labels to learn what's inside and draw associations between a brand and their favorite candies. Making that connection is invaluable for securing future customers.

For businesses in malls and other major retail locations, it may be difficult to put brand advertising up around that location, but many such sites have Halloween trick-or-treating hours, as Boston Online reported. A mall store that thinks ahead and greats candy promo items to hand out can give a personalized piece of advertising to every person that visits during that occasion.

Bags of promos
Another popular promo item giveaway this time of year are tote bags of all sizes. Handy for collecting candy and attractive for their year-round usefulness, Bagwell reported that this time of year sees the most orders from businesses looking to get custom logo bags printed for customers of all ages.

Around Halloween, such items may be even more highly visible to a broad spectrum of consumers. For one whole night, at least, a tote will be carried, filled and seen by dozens of different people, as the bag is presented ceremoniously to neighbors in the hopes of receiving more candy. A company that can combine its brand image with this marketing technique could experience much greater consumer interest come the holiday shopping season thanks to handing out Halloween promotional tote bags.